Introduction

The Palestinian religious, academic, and political elites teach an ideology of virulent hatred of Jews. The killing of Jews is presented both as a religious obligation and as necessary self-defense for all humankind.

Palestinian Authority elites have built a three-stage case against Jewish existence, much as a prosecutor might build a case demanding a death sentence. As their expert witness, they bring Allah Himself, Who is said to have sent a message through the Prophet Muhammad that killing Jews is a necessary step to bring Resurrection. Stage 1 is characterized by collective labeling of Jews as the enemies of Allah, possessing an inherently evil nature. Stage 2 teaches that because of their immutable traits, Jews represent an existential danger to all humanity. Stage 3 presents the necessary solution predetermined by Allah: the annihilation of Jews as legitimate self-defense and a service to God and man.

“It was always my wish to turn my body into deadly shrapnel against the Zionists, and to knock on heaven’s doors with the skulls of Zionists.”1

Reem Riyashi, 13 January 2004

The day after twenty-one-year-old Palestinian terrorist Reem Riyashi read these words for her farewell video, she murdered four Israelis in a suicide terror attack. She, or those who wrote the statement for her, believed that her act would guarantee her entry into heaven.

It will be demonstrated here that Palestinian religious, academic, and political elites are teaching an ideology of virulent hatred of Jews. The killing of Jews solely because they are Jews is presented as a religious obligation, necessary not only for Muslims and Arabs but as self-defense for all humankind.

Palestinian Authority (PA) elites have systematically built a three-stage case against Jewish existence, much as a prosecutor might build a case in court to demand a death sentence. As their expert witness they bring Allah2 Himself, Who is said to have sent a message through the Prophet Muhammad that killing Jews is a necessary step to achieve world redemption through Resurrection.

Stage 1 is characterized by collective labeling of Jews as the inherently evil enemies of Allah. Jewish traits are portrayed not as negative behavior that can be improved, but as the unchangeable Jewish nature. Stage 2 teaches that because of these immutable attributes, Jews represent an existential danger to all humanity. Stage 3 presents the necessary solution predetermined by Allah: the annihilation of Jews as legitimate self-defense and a service to humankind.

This inculcation began well before the outbreak of violence in September 2000, and continues in 2005 under the new Palestinian leadership.

These findings are based on eight years of analysis of teachings and statements by PA elites through television, radio, and newspapers and are representative of a much greater body of similar material conveyed in the PA-operated or strictly controlled media. This constitutes the Palestinian leadership’s message to its populace. Numerous arrests and disciplinary beatings of Palestinian journalists by the PA’s security forces have been documented.3 It is too early to judge whether the Mahmoud Abbas regime will permit press freedom. So far, on no issue has there been an exchange of a broad range of opinions that is indicative of change.

Stage 1: Collective Labeling of Jews as Evil

The PA teaches that Jews are malevolent and immoral by nature. To support these claims it presents, through its controlled media, a steady stream of religious figures, academic authorities, political leaders, and others to corroborate the existence of fundamental Jewish evil.

Dr. Muhammad Mustafa Najem, a lecturer in Koranic interpretation at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University, taught in a PA-televised sermon that Allah described the Jews as “characterized by conceit, pride, arrogance, savagery, disloyalty and treachery…[and] deceit and cunning.”4 Just a month later he declared, also on PA TV: “The Jews are Jews, and we are forbidden to forget their character traits even for a moment, even for a blink of an eye.”5

Such indoctrination coming from the spiritual elite is particularly problematic in religious cultures such as the PA. Palestinians’ allegiance to religious doctrine is so great that in a recent poll, when asked if the PA should “adopt laws endorsed by the Palestinian Legislative Council [PLC] or the Islamic shari’a,” 68.6 percent of Palestinians inclined toward shari’a while only 15.9 percent preferred laws endorsed by the PLC.6

The teachings of religious leaders in PA society are seen as the word of God – not opinions to be challenged, but dogma to be accepted.

The anti-Jewish indoctrination, however, is not limited to religious elites. Dr. Khader Abas, a lecturer in psychology at Gaza’s Al-Aksa University, taught the origins of Jewish evil from a different perspective: “From the moment the [Jewish] child is born, he nurses hatred against others, nurses seclusion, nurses superiority….”7 It should be stressed in assessing statements by PA academics that the freedom that Western universities take for granted is nonexistent in PA institutions. There are numerous documented instances of the PA arresting or forcing the dismissal of Palestinian academics.8

Palestinian children are taught disdain of Jews through children’s entertainment programs. One such show, ostensibly teaching youngsters to stay out of “dangerous places,” included this warning: “Watch out! You can’t trust the Jews, because they can strike us suddenly at any moment.”9

Jews are also depicted as having inherent negative traits in popular entertainment. An example is crossword puzzles in daily newspapers, as in a clue that read: “Jewish character trait spelled backward.” The solution: “Treachery.”10

Indeed, the religious leaders who speak on PA TV confer on Jews the ultimate iniquity: they are said to be the cursed enemy of Allah. Jews, it is claimed, rebelled against God by distorting the Torah He had given them. A historical educational program, already broadcast twice on PA TV in 2005, reiterated this common religious indictment: “The Jews in Medina had forsaken the commandments of Moses and returned to worshiping gold….The Jewish scholars would make business of the Torah: they hid [selected] pages of it, attached pages, falsified pages, and went on to become rich.”11

As enemies of Allah, Jews are therefore the enemy of every Muslim. In the words of Najem, “Praise unto Allah, Who cursed our enemies; curse upon curse up to Judgment Day.”12

Reinforcing such notions is the portrayal of Jews as animals. In three instances, the Koran tells of Muhammad turning people into monkeys and/or pigs.13 Another passage compares the Jews to donkeys. PA religious leaders, such as Imam Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi in his weekly lessons and official Friday Sermons that are shown on PA TV, routinely apply these references to Jews. In one TV sermon Maadi proclaimed: “We are waging this cruel war with the brothers of the monkeys and pigs, the Jews and the sons of Zion.”14

Palestinian children have incorporated this language into their image of Jews. A girl on PA TV introduced herself as follows: “My name is Ala from Rafah. [I am] ten years old. Let the pigs and monkeys know and their leaders Sharon and Bush…”15

Complementing the verbal dehumanization of Jews are visual images. Odious caricatures of Jews in Palestinian media appeared long before the eruption of violence in September 2000. For instance, in 1999, a cartoon in the official daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida depicted a Jew as a subhuman dwarf with the caption: “The disease of the century.”16

Palestinian commentators commonly malign Jewish traditions. The following appeared in an opinion piece in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida:

“The Jews until today keep the rituals of Passover….This holiday has various meanings….Murdering foreigners is a godly virtue that should be emulated….There is nothing in history more horrible than the theft, the greatest crime in history, that the Jews carried out the night of their Exodus [from Egypt]….In other words, robbing others is not only permitted, it is considered holy. Especially since this thievery was done under the direct command of God, [that is,] the God of the Jews.17″

The PA not only distorts Jewish tradition but also presents fictitious libels as authentic Jewish documents. Prominent among these is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which the PA routinely treats as the Jewish plan for world domination.

Dr. Riad Al-Astal, a lecturer in history at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, brought up the Protocols when discussing the rise of political Zionism in Europe. “What is known as the Zionist Renaissance,” he asserted, “grew and the seeds of what is called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion appeared at the end of the eighteenth century [sic]. They are the protocols that were presented in Basel [First Zionist Congress].18

Religious leaders stamp their indictments of Jewish nature with the irrefutable authority of the Prophet himself: “[Muhammad] warned us about the Jews, and about the Jews’ evil and the Jews’ deceit….He clarified the character of the Jew…so we would beware of them at every moment and at all times.”19

Stage 2: Jews as Existential Danger to Humanity

Jews are said to be planning and executing massive crimes that endanger all humanity. They are claimed to be responsible for all civil strife, financial crises, conflicts, and wars.

Senior Palestinian academics regularly portray Jews as a threat to stable society, and Zionism as a European attempt to solve its Jewish problem. The aforementioned Dr. Riad Al-Astal asserted: “Britain’s first aim was to be rid of the Jews, who were known to provoke disputes and disturbances and financial crises in Germany, France, and other European states.”20

This notion of Zionism as a European defense plan to be rid of its Jews has been taught as history in the PA for years. In 1998, an opinion piece in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida compared Hitler to Britain’s pro- Zionist foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour:

“The difference between Hitler and Balfour was simple: the former did not have colonies to which to send the Jews, so he destroyed them, whereas Balfour turned Palestine into one of his colonies and sent Jews there. Balfour is Hitler with colonies, while Hitler is Balfour without colonies. They both wanted to get rid of the Jews….Zionism was crucial to the defense of the West’s interests in the region, [by] ridding Europe of the burden of its Jews….21″

Palestinian children have embraced this teaching. In the words of a teenage girl named Majda: “…the Jewish presence in the land of Palestine was nothing but the liberation of all the countries of the world from the source of evil – that evil, which is widespread among the Sons of Zion….”22

The Jews, however, have concealed their menacing nature from most of the world thanks to their “repulsive control over the world media.”23 Once again, the Protocols are said to be the source of this policy:

“The Protocols of the Elders of Zion did not ignore the importance of using propaganda to promote the Zionist goals. In the second protocol is written: “Through the newspapers we will have the means to propel and to influence.”In the twelfth protocol: “Our governments will hold the reins of most of the newspapers, and through this plan we will possess the primary power to turn to public opinion.”24

A PA religious leader taught that Jews were responsible for the tsunami that struck Asia in December 2004,25 as well as for all catastrophes on earth: “[the Jews] spit their poisons at the international and regional level – and more so at the domestic level. Those who are the reason for every disaster of the world…these are the Jews, Allah’s curse be upon them.”26

The PA augments the picture by teaching that Judaism is a racist, murder-promoting religion. In an educational broadcast, Jirar Al- Kidwa, head of the PA Public Library, taught: “The commandments of their Hebrew Bible or their Talmud say that we are goyim – that is, non-Jews. They view all non-Jews as barbarians or as their servants, void of any human rights, and [one] may destroy them and kill them.”27

A. Al-Aziz Shahin, then PA minister of provisions, propounded the same message: “In their religious schools, where they learn that they are the chosen people of God and we are the others, we are considered the stage between the Jew and the monkey. This is a basis of the Jewish religion, and from this comes the killing of the Arab people in Palestine.”28

Palestinian children have internalized these messages and affirm that Judaism is life-threatening for them as Arabs. For instance, a child in a children’s TV program said: “They [Israeli soldiers] fight the Arabs – not only Palestinians – by killing Palestinians, expelling Palestinians, and expelling Arabs. All this is permitted according to their dictionary, their constitution, and their religion….”29

The PA also uses cultural expression and entertainment media to promote these messages. A full-length movie, Garden of Death, depicting Jews as evil murderers was broadcast numerous times over several years. Typical of this movie’s script are lines in which a rabbi avers: “Palestinians have no place on this land. Never! If we ever keep one of them alive, it would be as if we had done nothing. May God exterminate all Palestinians!”30

Accusations that Israel is committing a holocaust are common in the PA. Even children’s education includes this message. In a play for children aired on PA TV, an actor cried: “They are the ones who did the Holocaust….They opened the ovens for us to bake human beings….When an oven stops burning they light a hundred [more] ovens.”31

Academic and religious leaders use metaphors to emphasize the danger posed by Jews. Dr. Issam Sissalem, senior lecturer in history at the Islamic University in Gaza, said of Israelis: “They are like a parasitic worm that eats a snail and lives in its shell. We will not let anyone live in our shell!”32 In a TV sermon, senior PA cleric Ibrahim Mudayris defined Jews as a “cancer.”33 He is the PA’s most popular choice as TV imam. In the last year, he presented 60 percent of the official Friday PA TV sermons.

Children have internalized this imagery and are likewise shown on television referring to Jews as germs and cancer, as in this statement by a child on PA TV: “That evil which is found in the Jews has become a germ among us; it is a cancer that buried us and is still burying and we are the ones who suffer from this cancer.”34

Setting the stage for the demand that Jews be killed, PA religious leaders explain that left unchecked, the Jews could bring about the destruction of the world. As Mudayris put it: “The Jews – a mere seven million [sic] – trouble the entire earth. The cause of our nation’s problems and the world’s problems is the Jews.”35

He also asserted:

The Jews will not rest until they ignite the whole world with the fire of their conflicts….Our war against Zionism is not a war against the Israeli government alone, but a much greater war. It is a war against World Zionism that has begun controlling decision centers, controlling the Security Council, controlling the U.S. government, controlling Arab countries, controlling many countries around the world. Allah warned us of the Jews and their conflicts. The Jews are behind any conflict that can cause world destruction.36

Stage 3: Eliminating the Threat

The first two stages define the PA’s “objective” reality: Stage 1 characterizes the Jews as evil, and Stage 2 posits this evil as a threat to humanity. The verdict is inescapable: the world has no choice but to defend itself by fighting, subjugating, and killing Jews.

Indeed, according to the PA, all outbreaks of anti-Semitism can be explained as the world’s response to this threat. Because Jews are said to have been so detrimental to the societies where they have lived, a common message taught in Palestinian society is that their persecution throughout history was justified by nations’ need to protect themselves and take revenge on them.

The abovementioned lecturer in psychology, Khader Abas, expounded this point on PA TV:

The Israelis brought on themselves, I emphasize, brought on themselves in every society they lived, disasters and massacres. First, they concentrated money in their hands, denying it to others. Second, they spied against the nations where they lived. And the third important and basic aspect: they were condescending….Thus the people of the societies they were in took revenge against them, or tried to punish them.37

A month after Yasser Arafat died, Hassan Al-Khater, founder of the Al-Quds Encyclopedia, justified on PATV the Pact of Omar – which in 637 CE prohibited Jews from living in Jerusalem – as a necessary defensive action:

They did not ask for this condition, because they were racists or anti-Semites….The Muslims are familiar with the conspiracies of the Jews. For approximately four hundred or five hundred years, the Jews were forbidden from living in Jerusalem, before the arrival of Islam, and that due to the experience of those nations and of those cultures with this people….If we presented this before a judge [today]… he would renew this condition….The solution is that no Jew should live there….The prosperity of that city [Jerusalem] and of this land necessitates that no Jew should ever live there.38

The avowal that fighting Jews is legitimate self-defense continues under Abbas. As Mudayris stated in May 2005:

Read the history….You’ll find that Jews are behind every conflict on earth. The suffering of nations? The Jews are behind it! Ask Britain! What did it do to the Jews at the beginning of the sixth century? Chased them down, made them suffer, and prevented them from entering for more than three hundred years….Ask France what it did to the Jews! They made them suffer, chased them down, and burned their Talmud, for the conflicts that they [Jews] tried to ignite in France….Ask Portugal what it did to the Jews! Ask Czarist Russia – which hosted the Jews, and they plotted to murder the Czar! And they were massacred again and again. Don’t ask Germany what it did to the Jews, since the Jews are the ones who provoked the Nazis so the world would go to war against it.39

Once anti-Semitism by Arabs and other nations is legitimized as self-defense, fighting Jews becomes the fulfillment of a duty, as Maadi underlined in a televised Friday Sermon: “All weapons must be aimed at the Jews, Allah’s enemies, the cursed nation in the Koran, whom Allah describes as monkeys and pigs….[The] Koran says clearly that the worst enemies of the Muslim nation are the Jews, may Allah fight them….”40

The call to fight Jews solely because of their ethnicity is widespread in the PA. Ismail Radwan, professor at the Islamic University in Gaza, justifies the ongoing battle: “It is no coincidence that the Noble Koran mentions the story of Muhammad’s heavenly ascent while talking of the Israelites – as though Allah was preparing the Islamic nation that Jews will be in this land and as if He was addressing the Muslims: ‘O Muslims, prepare yourselves for the struggle with world Jewry.'”41

Self-defense is cited together with religious sources as the justification for genocide. Dr. Ahmad Abu Halabiyah, rector of advanced studies at the Islamic University, explained on PA TV:

The Jews are the Jews….They do not have any moderates or any advocates of peace. They are all liars. They must be butchered and must be killed….The Jews are like a spring – as long as you step on it with your foot it doesn’t move. But if you lift your foot from the spring, it hurts you and punishes you….

It is forbidden to have mercy in your hearts for the Jews in any place and in any land. Make war on them anywhere that you find yourself. Any place that you meet them, kill them.42

Beyond self-defense, the PA teaches that the death of Jews at the hands of Muslims is a precondition of world redemption. The PA promotes this belief by repeatedly propounding in their print and television media the following hadith, that is, a tradition attributed to Muhammad: “The Hour [Resurrection] will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews, and kill them. And the Jews will hide behind the rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: ‘O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!'”43

Frequently in recent years, Palestinian religious leaders and academics have taught publicly that this genocidal hadith, articulated more than a thousand years ago, is a religious obligation today. This is often blended with the self-defense argument, as in this statement by Mudayris from another TV sermon:

The Prophet said: “The Hour will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims kill them.” The Muslims will kill the Jews. Rejoice! Rejoice in Allah’s victory! The Muslims will kill the Jew, and he will hide….

The Prophet said: “The Jews will hide behind the rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: O servant of Allah, O Muslim, this is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!”

Why is there this malice? Because there are none who love the Jews on the face of the earth: not man; not rock; and not tree – everything hates them. They destroy everything; they destroy the trees and destroy the houses. Everything wants vengeance on the Jews, on these pigs on the face of the earth, and the day of our victory, Allah willing, will come.44

On numerous occasions, suicide bombings have been presented as fulfillment of this obligation, as in a sermon by Maadi:

All the weapons must be aimed at the Jews, Allah’s enemies….They will not be deterred unless we blow ourselves up, willingly and as our duty, in their midst….We will blow them up in Hadera. We will blow them up in Tel Aviv and in Netanya so that Allah will make us masters over this riff-raff. We will fight against them and rule over them until the Jew will hide behind the tree and rock and the tree and rock will say: “Muslim! Servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, kill him.”45

The call for genocide has continued since Arafat’s death. On 10 January 2005, the abovementioned Hassan Al-Khater cited the same hadith requiring the killing of all Jews everywhere. This came just two weeks after he devoted an entire TV lecture to analyzing this hadith and concluded that its demand for genocide was specifically directed at the Palestinians: “Allah meant our land and our people and meant our trees and our stones.”46

In May 2005, Mudayris taught on PA TV that the final stage of history would be the subjugation of Christian countries under Islam. However, the Jews could not be subdued and therefore the solution awaiting them was death – literally, the extermination of every Jew.

We [Muslims] have ruled the world [in the past] and a day will come, by Allah, when we shall rule the world [again]. The day will come and we shall rule America, Britain, we shall rule the entire world, except the Jews. The Jews will not live under our rule agreeably and permanently, since they have been treacherous in nature throughout history. A day will come when all shall have relief from the Jews, even the tree and the stone, which have suffered from them. Listen to your Beloved [Muhammad], who tells you about the most dire end awaiting the Jews. The tree and the stone want the Muslim to bring every Jew to his end. You all know the hadith.47

Muhammad Abd Al-Hadi La’afi, responsible for religious teaching and instruction in the OFFIce of the PA Wakf,48 likewise wrote of the impending extermination of the Jews: “The battle with the Jews will surely come….The Prophet spoke about it in more than one hadith and the Resurrection will not come without the victory of the believers over the descendants of the monkeys and pigs and with their annihilation.”49

Conclusion: Parallels to Nazi Ideology

There are striking parallels between PA and Nazi ideology. In Mein Kampf, Hitler used the same two justifications for his hatred of Jews: self-defense against the threat they posed to humanity, and fighting for God. He wrote: “[the Jews] would have as their final result the collapse of human culture, thereby leading to the desolation of the world…the funeral wreath of humanity…I believe today that I am acting according to the will of the almighty Creator: when I defend myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.”50

The PA has built an extensive case against Jewish existence based on libels and stereotyping. Jews are said to be inherently evil and an existential danger. Their annihilation, then, is legitimate self-defense, a service to humanity, and an enactment of God’s will.

Although the PA is not reticent about its plans, the world remains apathetic except for an occasional criticism of what is called “incitement.” This, too, seems to be a repetition of the world’s indifference to Hitler’s open calls for genocide. As Justice Robert H. Jackson, chief U.S. counsel to the Nuremberg Trials, wrote: “We must not forget that when the Nazi plans were boldly proclaimed, they were so extravagant that the world refused to take them seriously.”51

2. In Arabic, “Allah” is the equivalent of the English “God.” When an Arabic writer or speaker refers to the god worshiped by Muslims, we have rendered the word Allah. When the reference is to the god worshiped by Jews, we have rendered it as God.

12. M. Najem, Friday Sermon, PA TV, 1 November 2002. The present article is not a critique of Islam but rather of the choices that PA religious, political, and educational leaders make when seeking to interpret Islam in regard to Jews. Koranic passages that teach reconciliation between Jew and Muslim are ignored in PA media.

14. M. I. Maadi, Friday Sermon, PA TV, 12 September 2004. PA educators have included the donkey reference from the Koran in new Palestinian schoolbooks: “Those who were charged with the Torah, but did not observe it, are like a donkey carrying books….” (Reading the Koran, Ramallah: Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education, 2001, p. 20, for sixth grade).

15. “Ala,” Three Years of Intifada, PA TV, 29 September 2003.

16. Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 28 December 1999.

17. A. Atallah, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 15 April 2001.

18. R. Al-Astal, People’s Journey, PA TV, 28 December 2003. An official PA magazine reviewed a “scholarly” article about the Protocols: “The 65th issue of The Shahids was recently published by the Political Guidance…there is a chapter about a research paper, entitled ‘The Jewish Danger: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.'” Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 1 December 2003.

19. M. Najem, Friday Sermon, PA TV, 8 February 2002.

20. R. Al-Astal, People’s Journey, PA TV, 28 December 2003.

21. Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 12 June 1998.

22. “Majda,” People’s Journey, PA TV, 23 June 2002.

23. Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 7 February 1998.

24. Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 25 January 2001.

25. I. Mudayris, Friday Sermon, PA TV, 7 January 2005.

26. I. Mudayris, Friday Sermon, PA TV, 24 September 2004.

27. J. Al-Kidwa, Open Day Broadcast, PA TV, 2 March 2001.

28. A. Al-Aziz Shahin, Issue for Discussion, PA TV, 12 December 2002.

29. Unidentified child, People’s Journey, PA TV, 23 June 2002.

30. Garden of Death, PA TV, 2 February 2001; broadcast five times between 2001 and 2004.

37. K. Abas, Media and Issue, PA TV, 14 April 2002. As far back as 1998, the PA was teaching that Jews are responsible for anti-Semitism: Corruption is in the nature of the Jews all over the world, to the point where only rarely do you find corruption that Jews are not behind….If we take a look at history, we discover to what degree the Jews were exposed to loss and expulsion all over the world, as a result of their ugly deeds and their wickedness. This is after their actions were discovered and their responsibility for the destruction of the land and its people caused its local people to start a war of annihilation against them. (Al-Hayat Al- Jadida, 11 July 1998)

51. R. H. Jackson, Report of Robert H. Jackson, United States Representative to the International Conference on Military Trials, London, 1945 (New York: AMS Press, 1971).

* * *

ITAMAR MARCUS is the founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch. Mr. Marcus was appointed by the Israeli government to be the Israeli representative (communications specialist) to the Trilateral (Israeli-Palestinian-American] Anti-Incitement Committee established under the Wye Accords. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Marcus served as Research Director of the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, writing reports on PA, Syrian, and Jordanian schoolbooks. He holds a BA in political science from City College of New York and an MA in Hebrew culture from New York University.

BARBARA CROOK is associate director and North American representative of Palestinian Media Watch. She teaches at the School of Journalism and Communications at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She holds an Honors BA in English Literature from Queen’s University, an MA in Journalism from the University of Western Ontario, and a Southam Fellow at the University of Toronto.

Itamar Marcus

Itamar Marcus is the founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch. He was the Israeli representative to the Anti-Incitement Committee established under the Wye Accords. From 1998 to 2000, he served as Research Director of the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace. He holds a BA in political science from City College of New York and an MA in Hebrew culture from New York University.